The No. 13 NC State baseball team fell 7-5 to Hawaii at Les Murakami Stadium on Saturday night.
Hawaii (3-3) scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to flip a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 lead, evening the series at one game apiece after Itsuki Takemoto nailed down the save in the top of the ninth.
NC State (3-2) dropped its first game this season when allowing the opposing team to score first, rallying to win in its two previous contests after falling behind first.
Hawaii capitalized with two unearned runs following a pair of Wolfpack errors in the bottom of the second inning. Matthew Miura scored the Rainbow Warriors' first run after reaching due to a fielding error to open the frame. Sean Rimmer doubled Hawaii's lead after scoring on a bases-loaded walk.
Freshman
Jake Bechtel, who made not only his first-career appearance but also his first career start on Saturday, trimmed Hawaii's lead to one with a solo homer in the top of the fifth. Bechtel's solo shot pierced through a windy night at Les Murakami Stadium to comfortably clear the wall in left field.
Rimmer answered Bechtel's blast with a solo homer of his own in the bottom of the fifth, re-establishing Hawaii's two-run advantage heading to the sixth.
NC State tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth after chasing Hawaii starting pitcher Randy Abshier.
Garrett Pennington's leadoff double forced the Rainbow Warriors to make a call to the bullpen for reliver Connor Harrison.
Josh Hogue moved Pennington to third base with a groundout to second before
Alec Makarewicz's RBI single cut the Pack's deficit to 3-2.
Eli Serrano III's sacrifice fly to left field then tied the score at 3-3 with two outs in the sixth inning.
Noah Soles logged a sacrifice fly in the seventh to vault NC State ahead 4-3 before Serrano III's line drive single to right field stretched the lead to 5-3 in the eighth.
Three of Hawaii's four runs in the bottom of the eighth were unearned, tying the score at 5-5 on a passed ball on a dropped-third strike before Ben Zeigler-Namoa's two-out, two-RBI single put the Rainbow Warriors ahead for good.
Pennington, Makarewicz and Serrano III each recorded two-hit performances in Saturday's setback.
Hawaii reliever Zacary Tenn earned the win after tossing 0.2 scoreless innings on just five pitches. Freshman
Cooper Consiglio suffered the loss in his Wolfpack debut.
UP NEXTNC State looks to secure another series victory on Sunday against the Rainbow Warriors. First pitch at Les Murakami Stadium is set for 6:05 p.m. ET. No live video stream, NC State audio stream or NC State radio broadcast will be available for Sunday's contest. Fans can access live stats for Sunday's game by clicking
here or can listen live to Hawaii's radio broadcast by clicking
here.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/2/25/baseball-13-wolfpack-falls-late-at-hawaii-on-saturday